Don't let the name fool you - Pinball Quest is much more than video pinball. In fact, it's the first-ever multi-screen fantasy in a pinball format! Every move you make tells a story; every shot takes you another step closer in your quest to rescue the captive princess of the castle. Along the way you'll meet ghosts, goblins, witches and demons, in an endless labyrinth of treacherous passages and deadly doorways. It takes a fearless heart and a fast mind to conquer Pinball Quest. It also takes the skills of a true pinball wizard... which you can hone on the three other video pinball games included on this cartridge! So before you pour any more money into your NES library, get the one title that's a library all by itself! No matter how hard you try, you can't get enough of Pinball Quest!
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I'm always fascinated by games that combine two genres that normally wouldn't mix. In this instance its pinball and lite RPG mechanics. There are three tables where you can play a classic game of pinball on (I didn't bother with these) and an RPG mode where you, a cute ball thing, have to rescue a princess from "Beezelbub".
The goal is simple; each table has a boss, so defeat them and move onto the next table. As expected of the time, the ball physics aren't great. The ball just bounces all over the place and I found making accurate shots to be a bit troublesome. In between tables you can purchase upgrades at a shop. You can buy stoppers which cover those lanes to the left and right of the flippers. There are also two sets of flipper upgrades that increase how much damage you deal to enemies. You can also increase your attack by simply destroying monsters on the table. Your attack power is indicated by a meter on the bottom left. If you're feeling a bit saucy, you can steal from the shop. Winning results in you walking away with a random selection of items. Lose, and you'll be leaving with a crutch and half your gold missing.
Each table is bigger than a single screen, but there's only one set of flippers, so how can I possibly progress? Well, the flippers are detachable, by pressing up or down on the d-pad it'll send them to the corresponding button press. Every now and then I would forget to send the flippers back down to the bottom of the table, resulting in my ball falling back to the previous table. Luckily you don't have to defeat the bosses again, but trying to get back to the next level is still a pain. Falling back to a previous table will also cut your attack meter by half!
Half frustrating and half charming. It's cute, but the ball physics stink. It sure is a novel concept though! The ending did leave me a bit befuddled. You save the princess, both of them do a funny dance then a hole suddenly appears sucking both of them in causing them to fall on a big magnet creature floating in a dark space that is never mentioned before and destroying it.